Chapter 150: Big Debate
Translator: Subudai11 Editor: Chrissy
The Gate of All Living Things was an immortal treasure. It had a different time flow rate inside the gate than the outside. When Zhan Ziye previously completed the scenario, in Zhan Ziye’s perception, it took him several months to do it. While for the people outside, it was only about two hours.
Of course, when Yuan Chaonian extracted the image to the outside, it was accelerated for nearly a thousand times. Moreover, it was only for those with powerful enough Primordial Spirit that could effectively read the detailed information. Fortunately, this was not difficult for the present several Elders.
However, this time, Wang Lu’s experiential learning has been exceptionally long because he deliberately kept the last insect poison victim alive. As the Black Country’s Regent, he used the limitless delay time in the Illusion world to create the time-consuming bureau.
Then one day, in the Black Country, a group of people who claimed to be strange travelers suddenly appeared.
They dressed in strange clothes, spoke different languages, and each had a different magical ability. And they had something in common.
They claimed that this was the dream world and they were people doing experiential learning from the outside of this world.
As for their experiential learning itself, they didn’t seem to regard the people in this world as people. They often decisively killed people they said they wanted to kill and became the incarnation of robber and bandit, murdering people for their treasure. Essentially, they were more vicious and ruthless than the previous Devil Sect. Moreover, almost without exception they each collected numerous harem; whenever they saw a female to their liking, they would immediately rape her.
The appearance of these people was initially viewed as a carnival of mental patients. However, they soon began to cause all sorts of trouble. No matter how abnormal their thinking was, their power was unambiguously real. Moreover, each of them had a jaw-dropping luck: miraculously surviving after jumping over a cliff, sharply increased skill after just eating sweet potato, even just bathing in the river could meet a bathing noble family’s daughter, and could immediately compose a love song!
For this kind of people, the Regent was without mercy. He directly mobilized the domestic elite force and instructed them to kill those people on sight. No matter how strong they were, they couldn’t stand a chance against the Country’s Regent who had extinguished the disaster from the country, and was annihilated one by one. However, it was as if these travelers didn’t care about their lives; in the face of despair, most of them only revealed a look of regret, as if to say: "Alas, what a pity this experiential learning isn’t pleasurable enough."
To make matters worse, the thunderous method of the Regent couldn’t effectively eradicate these travelers. Soon, their strange behavior could no longer be explained as a manifestation of mental illness. People began to feel very puzzled by their origins, and quickly, their preached theory of dream world began to have influence. Especially when even though this theory seemed absurd and bizarre, it was actually self-consistent!
In the eyes of those who claimed to be travelers, the Black Country was only a country in a dream world. The real world was vastly bigger than this. The former leader of the Devil Sect, who was incomparably mysterious and formidable and once turned the whole Black Country upside down, would just be a humble pawn in the real world. As for these travelers, they just came here to find some fun. What about the various tragedies and absurd acts caused by them? Ha! Who cares about a dream world turning upside down! What about their own death? They would just wake up from their sleep, that’s all!
The spread of this theory very quickly caused a great panic. On this, the Imperial ban alone hadn’t been helpful. Thus, the Regent immediately organized a group of well-known scholars to demonstrate a serious question: How to prove the world is real?
This metaphysical philosophical question, of course, did not really have any demonstrable method. Although some people put forward the "I think, therefore I am" to try to strengthen the public confidence in their reality, however... the Regent shook this point of view with just a sentence.
"Who stipulates that thinking must have a medium."
"Thought alone does not require the existence of a person’s thinking. If we’re in the dream world, perhaps all our thoughts are just simply the thoughts of a person dreaming."
Since there was no convincing argument, those scholars could only continue to study and discuss until a conclusion was reached. While this big debate continued across the whole country, more and more people were becoming restless.
Theoretically speaking, the authenticity of the world should be self-evident, but the way to falsify it was actually very simple: As long as there was a phenomenon or things that were not compatible with the natural law of this world, and that was it.
Thus, without the appearance of a convincing theory and the successive appearances of incompatible things—every emergence of these travelers was like a heavy hammer beating the heart of this world—how could people not doubt the authenticity of this world?
Of course, people who participated in this great discussion naturally did not know that those so-called travelers were just play-acts by the demons of Devil Sect instructed by Wang Lu. However, later on, even those demons began to doubt the authenticity of their world.
During this period, countless of evil cults sprang up. They colluded with those travelers by constantly spreading the story of how beautiful the real world was.
"In the real world, the leaders of a country are elected by the people, even emperors, and kings. In front of the people, they must be humble and cautious, and the bureaucrats must curry the favor of the people because the people could always kick them out of offices."
"In the real world, people do not spend money to visit a doctor or go to school, everything is paid by the government. Moreover, every adult can obtain free housing from the government."
"In the real world…"
Naturally, these people had also encountered strong opposition.
"So you want to go to the real world? Then why don’t you commit suicide? As soon as you die, you will wake up from your dream!"
"A group of scum who jump up to the hype!"
"Please do not disappoint this world!"
This farce, driven by a strong and powerful string-puller, had become increasingly unmanageable, and no matter whether you were willing or not, you could never avoid this problem.
Is this world real?
This problem was not limited to the senior scholars' debate. From high ranking powerful ministers, down to the lower class people, all talked about this thing in their daily lives. Of course, no one had a real practical answer, but the one behind the scenes just wanted them to think about it.
As long as everyone began to think, they would scrutinize, and that was enough, because... this world could not stand up to scrutiny.
At this time, outside the Gate of All Living Things, Yuan Chaonian’s complexion had turned gloomy; he had never encountered such a situation!
The Gate of All Living Things generated a simulation of all living things. In this illusion world, each person has their own thoughts, which even surpassed that of the marvelous fine differentiation of Primordial Spirit of a Deity Stage Daoist Master. This was the terrifying power of this Immortal Treasure.
Actually, the basic principle of the Gate of All Living Things was to refine materials that substituted the above-deity-stage’s Primordial Spirit in order to split them into countless thoughts, becoming the myriad people in the illusion world. The illusion world and the people in it combined then evolved into the world of all living things, and the world of vagaries thus arose. Then the disciple was allowed to enter it to receive the experiential learning.
However, this kind of evolution could not replace the real world, and the countless of differentiation of thoughts in the Gate of All Living Things could never be compared to the thoughts of real humans. Even if it was an Immortal Treasure, it was impossible to carve out a perfect little world. In fact, only the world surrounding the disciple who took the experiential learning was fully deduced by the Gate of All Living Things. The rest of the world might as well be zombies, as they just drone on in their daily lives.
However, now, Wang Lu had awakened all the people in the illusion world to think about the fatal problem of the Gate of All Living Things!
In just a few short time, the operator of the Gate of All Living Things, Yuan Chaonian had already clearly perceived that the Gate of All Living Things had begun to be overwhelmed.
"That’s enough."
After a moment of hesitation, the Elder quickly made a decision. He directly pushed open the Gate of All Living Things, forcibly interrupted the illusion.
Suddenly, within the illusion world, those shady people who disputed the authenticity of their world finally got their long-awaited answer. Yes, their world was false.
Then, along with the awakening from the dream, they were brutally ground to dust by the cruel law.
The Gate of All Living Things uttered a dreary groan. Since its birth, it had never been treated so roughly. As the door was slowly opened, the door frame faintly revealed a crack. Yuan Chaonian, who saw this, gnashed his teeth even more. This thing, which was regarded as an immortal treasure of unsurpassed glory by him, had been damaged because of the forced interruption. Although the damage itself was not that serious, it could really deeply hurt people’s heart.
After the Gate of All Living Things had been opened, Wang Lu lightly walked out. With a face that clearly showed he really wasn’t ready for it to be over, Wang Lu said, "Not good enough!"
"Good your ass!" Yuan Chaonian inwardly roared. He wished he could slap this damn kid to death!
The damage to the Gate of All Living Things caused by Wang Lu inciting the masses to question whether the world was real was not the real serious problem. The real serious problem was that, after this incident, perhaps this Gate of All Living Things would no longer be used by the Ten Thousand Arts Sect disciples for their experiential learning.
However, after another thought, Yuan Chaonian’s anger dissipated, replaced by a gloomy depression.
As Wang Lu said, the Gate of All Living Things… was indeed just a high-end toy. Moreover, Wang Lu, as an insignificant Qi Cultivating Stage cultivator, was actually able to play it so finely. In light of this, how could this kind of thing take up the heavy responsibility to train the sect’s disciples? Previously in the Ten Thousand Arts Sect, after they had tested it for about dozens of times, they thought it was flawless, but actually...it just hadn’t met with a scary enough person. If they used the Gate of All Living Things to train the disciples, their disciples would definitely suffer a loss when the disciples descended the mountain and entered the real world.
Seeing Yuan Chaonian’s gloomy and doubtful complexion, Wang Lu chuckled and said, "Oh, Elder, no need to be too depressed. Although it’s only a toy, if used properly, it can play its effect very well. For example, I can think of several..."
In Yuan Chaonian’s ears, such comforting words were really grating. This Deity Stage Elder interrupted Wang Lu’s act, "Enough, I admit that you do have some skills. Just consider we’ve just ‘displayed our slight skill before an expert’. Later on, we will ask for guidance when we have the opportunity."
With that, he waved and called the Ten Thousand Arts Sect disciples back inside the Cloud Wave Boat’s cabin, leaving behind the Spirit Sword Elders dry in the air in their original spot.
However, the Spirit Sword Sect people didn’t care about it at all. As they got off the boat, they involuntarily chuckled and smiled.
Along the way, the several Elders merrily chatted about what just happened.
Liu Xian said, "Hah, this time, the Ten Thousand Arts Sect people’s bitterness was really unspeakable."
Hua Yun very directly gloated, "They deserve it! Instead of showing off something else, they actually showed off this thing, and they showed it in front of Wang Lu. I still remember clearly what happened five years ago at the Peach Blossom Village!"
Lu Li promptly echoed, "That’s right. At that time, although Fifth Elder Sister’s arrangement couldn’t be compared with the Gate of All Living Things, using the same logic, putting Wang Lu in this kind of test… Fortunately, Yuan Chaonian’s reaction was quick enough. Otherwise, I’m afraid they would not be able to maintain the Gate of All Living Things."
Fang He said with a sinking voice, "However, from the purely technical point of view, the kind of Immortal Treasure like this Gate of All Living Things is really great. In this aspect, we could only look up at them in awe."
Lu Li’s face turned bitter, "Thank you for the lesson, Third Elder Brother, I will continue to work hard."
Fang He shook his head, "Sixth Junior Brother, I am not blaming you. This is the Ten Thousand Arts Sect’s specialty, we simply can’t be compared to them, and we don’t need to."
Liu Xian agreed, "Yes. I remember the Patriarch once said that the difference between men and apes is the ability to use tools, and the difference between mortals and cultivators...lies in the ability to make good use of oneself. Mortal power has its limits, they can’t avoid seeking outside help. However, cultivators are different. Single-mindedly devoting on a specialized skill, after all, is not the right way to cultivate."
Lu Li asked, "Speaking about the right way, the two Sects will begin the true competition in a few days, how are the rules of the competition?"
Liu Xian said, "What do you think? All of these works are already in the Fifth Junior Sister’s hand. She has already let me see the rules. It does not have much technical content, but it also does not have many rooms to play tricks on. The competition is very simple, a ringed fighting competition."
Lu Li smiled, "Oh, this is unlike her at all."
"Humph, what she means is probably this: even in a competition where technical skill does not come into play, someone can still play tricks on it."
While speaking, Liu Xian glanced back at Yue Yun, Yue Xinyao and other disciples who were chatting with Wang Lu.
On his face, there was a look of approbation but also helplessness. However, the approbation look was several times more prominent than the helplessness.